Decorative finishes and wallpaper

Venetian plaster is the most demanding thing we do. It is worked in thin layers with a trowel and burnished while the material is still alive, so the result depends on timing and on the temperature of the room. The depth it has does not come out of a tub of paint, and it cannot be rushed.

Alongside it we work trowelled finishes, sponge effects, kourasani and metallic effects. Each gives a different texture and needs a different base. The wall has to be perfectly flat before we start, because a decorative finish does not hide imperfections, it magnifies them under raking light.

We also hang and strip wallpaper of every kind. Taking the old paper off is often half the job, because the wall underneath needs making good before it will take anything new. For distressed finishes we work with patina and chalk paint on furniture, doors and walls, when the point is for the piece to look as though it has a history.

On this kind of work a sample is the only honest way to agree. The same material reads one way in the light of your own living room and another way in a photograph. I prepare a sample at your place before you decide.